Röyksopp - Junior:

After Four long years of anticipation (by myself at least), the Norwegian duo has finally made their much anticipated return. Röyksopp released their third studio album last week titled Junior (to be followed by Senior shortly after in late 2009), and the result is nothing more than intoxication. Based on the first half of this release, this run is sure to be a success.

Opening with a short stint of laughter that soon becomes a bouncy beat of floating vocals, Junior sets a high tone of fun and anticipation. As we've seen before on the duo's two previous releases, Röyksopp takes on the talent of numerous female vocalists for more than one track, constructing a medley that balances nicely with the accumulating synth. Junior exhibits four guest singers — Lykke Li and Robyn (from Sweden), fellow Norwegian Anneli Drecker, and Karin Dreijer Andersson, veteran to past Röyksopp albums, and also the lead vocalist of the electronic-music group The Knife.

The duo, consisting of Torbjorn Brundtland and Svein Berge, were schoolmates in their hometown of Tromsø, toying with electronic instruments in the early 90s. They didn't debut as Röyksopp until years later when they met again in Bergen. The city was a pivotal scene for underground electronic music at this time, and the band worked with other Norwegian musicians such as Frost, Kings of Convenience’s guitarist and singer Erlend Øye, Those Norwegians and Drum Island in what was called the Bergen Wave.

We can be sure that Röyksopp will always have plenty to say about their music, but when asked to explain where the band's third proper album, Junior, fits in the band's discography, Svein Berge, one half of the Norweigan electronic duo, explains, "If Melody A.M. was a relaxed journey inwards on a Sunday afternoon and The Understanding was more uptempo, with more vocals and a hint of melodic catchiness, then the new album is a mix of the two."

Torbjørn Brundtland, the other half of the duo, goes on to commingle the modesty of Berge's description; "Making this new album was like mining in the mountains. When you think of a mine you think of one that is already many kilometers deep, and people work inside it. But sometimes one has to start a new mine, so you start digging the crust of the earth. And we had to find a good spot to start digging."

Four years after the release of The Understanding, Junior has Berge and Brundtland writing, performing, arranging, mixing and producing all 11 tracks. Setting aside the mining metaphor Brundtland says, "Junior is an outgoing and direct album. It’s the youthful part of Röyksopp. We are young in bodies and old in heart. Or is it the other way? We have a certain schizophrenia -- we want to make both energetic and really quiet music." Berge adds "People should be on the look out for the more quiet and introverted Senior due out late 2009." While Brundtland concurs, "Yes, the concept of Junior will stand clearer after the release of Senior."

Overall, Junior is captivating and simply delightful. A steady groove and magnetic presence makes the entire album surprising at first, but grows better as the small details come forth after a few listens. I'm not sure if Junior will be one of the best albums of 2009, but it definitely has a strong presence within the genre.

"Once again proving the duo as forerunners of the electro/dance-pop fusion genre and pioneers of wonderfully bizarre sounds, Röyksopp delivered big on Junior and has raised both the expectations for and intrigue surrounding the follow-up album Senior due later this year." according to Garens

Beirut/Realpeople: The Case of the Bi-Polar Stepbrothers

While these 11 tracks by Zach Condon are mostly new, they don't comprise a proper follow-up to his 2007 LP, The Flying Club Cup. Instead, they fill out two distinct EPs, packaged together. The first is March of the Zapotec, credited to Beirut. The second is Holland, credited to Realpeople, which was Condon's solo project prior to Beirut.

On March of the Zapotec, Condon shifts away fom his Eastern European fixation and heads south of the border. While researching a film soundtrack in Oaxaca, Mexico, he became interested in the region's funeral bands. In a small village called Teotitlan del Valle, he met the 19-strong Jimenez Band, and began to collaborate with them using a translator.

The resulting EP is powerful, but also a bit slight. Only half of its six songs include Condon's lush vocals, and instrumentals range from 30 seconds to two minutes. Still, the small package contains remarkably big music. Reminiscent of New Orleans funeral bands meet the 3 Amigos, this is wearily triumphant party music. Delirious box steps and waltzes fill up with stylish parade strings, baggy tubas and bleating trumpets, antic climaxes and sagging slumps. On songs like "La Llorna," where Condon sings, he sounds impressive but lacks charisma-as we've heard before, it feels like he's singing from behind heavy-lidded eyes.

If the stately extravagance of Zapotec is too imposing, Holland is more roundly satisfying. It's fun to hear Condon loosen his collar for this featherweight synth-pop project. Traces of Balkan strings emerge, but the EP is mostly taken up by whizzing programmed drums and lively synth melodies. Condon's voice-which usually sounds cloudy-opens up like a clear blue sky in this context. Holland reveals a relentlessly serious musician embracing the value of good old-fashioned fun. Where has all of this been hiding all these years????

Peter Bjorn and John: Swedish Trio moves into the future via the '80s

These tuneful swedes had already been making records for four years by the time 2006's Writer's Block turned up on the playlists of everyone from NPR to Kanye West, and now it's time to follow up that commercial breakthrough. While 80s synth pop has come back into fashion after years in the critical wilderness, it still counts as a big creative shift for the trio to move so confidently into over-the-top electronic imitation on their fifth studio release. Still, Living Thing is hardly a reverent tribute to the era of Depeche Mode and Wham!, as the trio augment robot riffs and splashy drums with very human handclaps and vocal bass lines, never failing to mix up their experiments with gamelan-tinged garage rock and African guitar pop. The album is uneven by previous cut and dry standards, but the band earns high marks for proving their hooks can translate into any stylistic language.